The federal government is clamping down on the widespread issue of human trafficking with a $75-million national strategy.

Human trafficking is a complicated problem impacting every community across Canada, said Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale at the announcement of the plan in Regina on Wednesday. He believes the new National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking will lead to more victims coming forward, which will result in more people being charged with human trafficking.

According to the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS), there were 375 police-reported incidents involving human trafficking in 2017, while police reported 291 people were accused of human trafficking.

But Goodale said these statistics likely only show “the tip of the iceberg”, as human trafficking often happens under the radar and most victims are hesitant to come forward.

“We want to ensure that prosecutions are more successful, that the crime is reported more often, that the victims and survivors have the supports they need to be able to escape the evil circumstances in which they find themselves,” said Goodale.

“It’s horrendously tough, but we need to make it more and more possible for them to have the confidence that the public safety system, the justice system, the human support system will back them up.”

Building on the $14.5 million over five years and $2.89 million per year ongoing invested in 2018’s budget, the federal government is now contributing another $57.22 million over five years. In addition there will be $10.28 million a year ongoing. Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility Carla Qualtrough was also in Regina to help make the announcement.

The strategy has five key pillars: empowering victims, preventing human trafficking, protecting those most vulnerable to the crime, prosecuting traffickers, and partnering with local governments and organizations to work more effectively.

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Traffickers’ ability to move quickly from one police jurisdiction to another makes investigating their crimes difficult. A national case-management standard being established as part of the protection strategy will help police work together more effectively between jurisdictions, said Goodale.

“The police forces are already collaborating amongst each other to follow the threads wherever they go, but obviously if they move from one jurisdiction to another … you need to have the ability to have continuity through that whole process,” he said.

But human trafficking is not just a Canadian problem, it’s an international problem, said Goodale, who noted the strategy also aims to increase collaboration with police agencies around the world. This was a discussion topic at the G7 Security Ministers’ Meeting in Toronto last year, and Goodale said other countries were receptive to the idea that police across country borders need to be able to share information to track and prosecute human traffickers.

“It is a hugely complicated problem and the criminals know how to play the system, so we are trying to put in place the investigative tools within our own jurisdiction and in collaboration with INTERPOL and other police services around the world to make sure that we are making the law enforcement network as seamless as it can possibly be,” he said.

Within Canada, Goodale said raising public awareness and understanding of human trafficking is also a “critical part” of fighting the issue. He said people should be aware that the internet and social media are one of the main tools traffickers use to draw people into the industry, and that parents should be aware of what their children are accessing online.

To support the government’s work, Goodale appointed retired RCMP assistant commissioner Shirley Cuillierrier as Special Advisor on Human Trafficking. In this role, Cuillierrier will give ongoing recommendations to the government on its efforts to combat human trafficking.

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